Khotin

Khotin, Sumy Region, is a small settlement (2,600 residents) on the banks of River Oleshnia. For the first time Khotin was mentioned in the List of Nearby and Far Away Rus Towns (late 14th c.) under Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Together with Romny and Putyvl, this major town in contemporary oblast survived Mongolian invasion of 1239. It also survived destruction of Old Rus settlements by Batu Khan, but fell to Crimean Tatars in the 15th and I6thc.

It started to revive in 1689, when Sumy Colonel H. Kondratyev founded his farmstead, mill and church not far away from the old fortified settlement.

At the end of the 18th c. Khotin belonged to the lady of the manor Ye. Bu-turlina; early in the next century a luxurious architectural ensemble on the bank of picturesque pond in the park was erected after the design of D. Kvarenga; it included eighty-seven room main palace with wings and numerous official buildings. Architect H. Lukomsky visiting Khotin on the eve of the WWI noted that this palace might well be the best manor in the Southern Russia. In the second half of the 19th c. it belonged to the Stroganoffs, and on the eve of revolution (1916) it was purchased by shortsighted proprietor of nearby Kyiyanytsia landlord and sugar manufacturer Leszczynski. In 1918, fire destroyed the Khotin palace ensemble. Only its lateral wings remained; they house a local secondary school today.